2. The Prevalence of Slums
• The first published definition of
the word “slum” was found in
the 1812 book entitled
Vocabulary of the Flash Language
• The definition here made
“slum” synonymous with
“racket” and “criminal trade”
• Soon it was said that people
lived in slums rather than
participated in “slum activities”
• Cardinal Wiseman is credited
for popularizing the word slum
among writers
3. Prevelance of the Slums Cont.
• Years after Cardinal’s popularization of “slum”, the location of the world’s worst slum
was being debated, everyone agreed on the characterization of a slum
• Slums had all of the following: dilapidated housing, overcrowding, disease, poverty,
and vice
• The US Department of Labor did not stray far from this definition when they performed
the world’s first scientific study of public housing when they said a slum is “an area of
dirty backstreets, especially when inhabited by a squalid and criminal population”
4. Prevelance of the
Slums Cont.
• Bombay, now
Mumbai, leads the
world in the amount
of slum-dwelling
people in one country
with 10 to 12 million
• Mexico City and
Dhaka follow a
close second with
9 to 10 million
each
5. Prevelance of the Slums Cont.
• Ethiopia has the highest percentage of the country’s total population living
in slums with a staggering 99.4% which is about 10.2 million people
• This measure is largely based upon the total population of the country
• For example, China is only at 37.8% of its total population living in
slums but due to the large size of China, this relatively low
percentage represents 193.8 million people calling the slums home
6. Illusions of Self Help
• In the 16 years between 1972 and
1988, World Bank increased its
lendings for urban development
200-fold, going from 10 million
dollars to 2 billion
• The public and private goal was to
improve the slums rather than
replace them believing this was the
less difficult option between the two
• It turned out to be more difficult
than they previously thought
